Although diesel was up Monday, the job market is strong. So is the housing market. Consumer confidence is solid, and manufacturing has made a comeback, The Associated Press reported.

Diesel prices Monday continued their upward climb from last week, with the national average ringing in at $3.086 a gallon, up from $3.070 the last week of January, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported.

Only three of the EIA’s 10 reporting regions still have diesel selling below $3 a gallon: the Lower Atlantic at $2.988, the Gulf Coast at $2.874, and the Rocky Mountain at$2.981. The Gulf Coast has continually had the lowest-priced diesel in the country while California has had the highest. Monday, truckers traveling through California were paying $3.711 at the pump.

The national average was only up 1.6 cents from last week but diesel in both California and New England went up 2.8 cents a gallon, which adds up quickly for fleets.

The Rocky Mountain and Midwest sectors only rose by 1.4 cents a gallon.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $1.30, or 2 percent, to $64.15 a barrel in New York while Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, lost 96 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $67.62 a barrel in London, The Associated Press reported Monday.

Fear about inflation and higher interest rates sent stock prices tumbling yesterday and raised concerns about corporate profits. Yet AP said the rush of anxiety “has obscured a fundamental fact about the U.S. economy: It's healthy.”

Nearly nine years into the expansion that followed the Great Recession, the job market is strong. So is the housing market. Consumer confidence is solid, and manufacturing has made a comeback. And households and businesses are spending freely, the news service reported.